Thursday, November 10, 2005

I sometimes vaguely wonder how I'd fare in warfare. I suspect, badly. Ignoring the fact that I am so unfit that if I have to run I am left panting for nearly half an hour afterwards modern warfare consists of random people dying, and I figure I'd start in the army at low rank, and die. This is assuming a competent enemy who we don't just bomb into the stone age, as we kind of did to Iraq. Which, as long term planning goes, wasn't. In all honesty unless there was some need for mass troops I'd probably serve my country far more effectively at home. Having said that I'd only truly "serve my country" if there was a cause I considered just. So meh.

In the future torches are rubbish. This seems to be true of many scifi/horror films. They will have lasers and super tanks and spaceships, but when they go to fight the alien in the enclosed space (preferably splitting up so they can get picked off one by one) they will have the most pathetic torch. This even occurs in star trek, where they have enough gadgets to sink a starship, but apparently having lights that illuminate more than a small dot poses some great difficulty. I wonder if perhaps lighting will be the one problem of the future, when all others are solved, we still won't be able to see very well in dark caves. It'll hardly be a horrible problem, but then, when you've got rid of all the others, you've got to take what you've got.

2 Comments:

Kieran, I suspect you'd fare badly in warfare not because you were unfit, but because you wouldn't want to kill anyone!

Also, I'm sure light will only be a problem in the future if the sun decides to take vengenance on planet earth and die. Light pollution is actually a very big problem nowadays - take a look at some satellite photos!! Probably the reason trekkies had a problem with light was because they were out there in the nadir of space. May God rest their poor souls.

Hah, if the sun dies I think light will be the last of our problems... Also in the future its Because they have all these lasers and super tannks that they have no power left for lighting, pretty stupid but true.